All Forum Posts by: Christine Smith

Hi @Haydn Halsted. Great question. As a house hacker, if I were taking in a new tenant currently I would put a COVID-19 statement in the lease with a release of liability for you and the other tenant(s). Check with a lawyer or legal agency about language for your location. 

I wouldn't say it's likely, but it's a probability you should think through and prepare for. Also, will you have reserves to back up in case there is an infection and the other tenants need to move out?

I would also think through your policies (and put them in the lease) about what happens when someone does bring COVID-19 into the house, since it is a shared space. And what preventative measures will you take to reduce the possibility of spread? How is cleaning and sanitation done for common spaces? What guest policies are you comfortable in light of COVID? 

While you're not directly responsible for the adults you rent to, as a landlord you are responsible to reduce risk in the home and care for the safety of your tenants. 

Hi @Bryan Nguyen! Happy to answer any questions you have.

My husband and I bought in Orange County, CA in 2016 and have house hacked it since. It has a small back house we rent out, and we have a roommate. And we rent our place out to filming productions, and have used Airbnb (before our city banned it), rented to travel nurses, and foreign exchange students!

When we bought our "rent" (leftover cost after rental income) was $500-950/mo. And currently we're refinancing, and we'll  be living in our house for $100 cost; or if we have a filming likely we'll be making $900+ that month. 

We've used every possible way to get our house to pay for itself so if you'd ever like to talk through ideas on that let me know. 

Best advice I could give though would be to screen your tenants well and trust your gut. Use a credit and background checking system (like Cozy). And setup a good lease agreement (meaning detailed). You'll learn as you go, but it's way easier to ease up on restrictions if things are going well than it is to add them later on. So think through things like guests, late fees, parking, common space cleaning, utilities usage and payment, etc. 

Thanks for the suggestion, @Benjamin Mccracken!

David, that is incredibly helpful. Thank you so much for the detailed reply.

I think we'd started looking at BRRRR thinking it could be a better strategy (and I'm sure in certain scenarios it absolutely is). But your analysis has me thinking back to straight buy and hold in the area of TX we're looking at given our financial situation, and the PP's we're looking into.

Appreciate the input!

Hi Chris, this is exactly the kind of feedback I'm looking for. Thank you! I'm going to go in and update the interest rate, and refi closing costs.

The renovation numbers were based on a photo review of the property, and the bigger pockets fix calculator (and my own experience with our current property). Half the demo is already complete. I added a 5% misc. in the fix budget already, then rounded up an additional $3k.

After you run a report, how do you determine if you're going to move forward or not (especially given there are always so many unforeseen variables)?

Thanks!

View report

*This link comes directly from our calculators, based on information input by the member who posted.

Hello all, I've been running reports for a bit now and I'd love some feedback on this one. What am I missing? What have I under/over calculated? etc. I see that the post-refinance is less than $100, but with estimating ARV and rental rates ... is it close enough to be worth considering?

Also, the purchase money is private funding, with details TBD.

I'm using this as a practice run, so any notes you have are helpful! Thank you.

Peace,

Christine

Thank you, Pamela! Yes I recall the residency requirements. I failed to mention that we are willing to live out of state for a year to access the lower down payment. :)

Thank you, @Bob Okenwa! That's helpful.

Hello, so we're looking to do our second investment property out of state in AZ after house hacking with FHA loan in Southern California for the past several years. Our current LTV is sitting right around 75%.

If we can find one, we're looking to do a HELOC and possibly a FHA 203k for an AZ property.

My question is: what is the right order of getting things ready? Apply for HELOC first? Apply for financing first? If 203k, do we need to refinance our current home before we apply? What steps am I forgetting?

I know HELOCs can be hard to come by right now. We are not in a rush. If we have to wait a few months that’s fine. 

Thank you!

@Dennis Maynard Are there any other ways to use my existing equity other than a HELOC?